As Deep As The Ocean || •Mermaid AU• || KiriBaku

17

 Denki asked after several more minutes, and Mina sighed. There was a silence, and none of them wanted to answer with a scenario that would, undoubtedly, be shot down. The three of them knew Kirishima’s option was the only viable one… 

But the three of them knew that it was also extremely risky.

“Ei, are you sure you want to help this guy?” Denki eventually broke the silence, the crab he was previously crunching on long since been devoured, and Kirishima’s head snapped up to glare at the eel, his red eyes flashing with anger behind them. The latter raised his arms, palms out towards the redhead in a surrendering motion at the angry look at the other boy’s face. “Woah, I just meant that you barely know him. And, he’s not the nicest, dude. Are you sure you want to put his life in your hands? Again? You already saved him from drowning. I’m not trying to be mean, I’m just saying, we don’t know him, he clearly doesn't want our help, and I doubt he will want to keep being your friend with the way he speaks to us all.” 

Kirishima sighed. He knew Kaminari was right, a little bit. It wasn’t his responsibility to keep his new friend alive, and some of the things that Bakugou says about himself makes the redhead feel like maybe the blonde doesn’t even want to be alive, but he really wanted to save him. He really liked this guy! They could just talk, and there was something about the human that just dragged Eijirou in, made him feel like he wanted to share his whole life with the blonde. He wanted to take him on a tour of his home village, introduce the rest of his friends, let the blonde meet his parents… He wanted all of that.

And he also loved getting to know every little thing about humans and their culture, too! Even if he thought the way he tortured fish was strange, the blonde knew it as something different. And the shark was curious about all of that; he wanted to learn every single difference between their cultures.  

“Yes, I am sure. He is my friend! Besides, you were grateful when I saved you when you got stuck in that trench! How would you feel if I said ‘Oh, I barely know you, you’re on your own’?” Kaminari snapped his mouth shut after that sentence, suddenly feeling really hypocritical about his earlier arguments, his gaze drawing down in a guilty manner. 

“Sorry. You’re right, I just… Nevermind, don’t worry. So, what are we gonna do?” He ran his fingers over the rippling water, golden eyes flicking everywhere except his and Mina’s faces. Kirishima sighed, opening his mouth to apologise for his slightly aggressive tone, the guilty look on his friend’s face sending an ache through his chest, but Mina cut in. 

“I guess we really don’t have a choice.” She sighed, rubbing her hands up and down her arms, before clasping her hands together, fluorescent yellow eyes scanning over the both of them. “I can put up a veil, but not on myself, that will take too much energy I don’t have yet. So, who wants to go up?” 

“Wait, what?” Kirishima asked, the words that had left Mina’s mouth completely shocking the redhead. “You’ll actually do it?” He couldn’t keep the excitement in his voice quiet, and when she reluctantly nodded, he rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her tightly, almost crushing her in his embrace. “Thank you thank you thank you!” 

“Woah, put me down, dude.” She patted his head gently, slipping back through his arms as he loosened his grip, before he planted a large kiss on her cheek, finally pulling away from the pink girl with a larger than life smile on his face, his dimples on full display against the moonlight. 

“I’ll go up, since he’s my friend. Humanify me, pinky!” He spread his arms out into a t-pose, and Mina audibly sighed at him. 

“You’re an idiot.” She mumbled, and Denki made an obnoxious sound, flapping his arms around in the water excitedly.

“Oh, oh! Bakugou taught you that!” He smiled brightly at his realisation, and Mina chuckled at him, nodding. 

“Yep! I don’t know what it means, though.” She smiled, and Denki nodded his head aggressively, humming in agreement. 

“Me either! He never ended up telling me.” The two looked at each other, soft giggles leaving their mouths and large smiles lining their cheeks, before they looked back at Kirishima and their faces dropped, seriousness washing over them once again. 

“Ok, so, I can veil you for a couple minutes. Not long, though, so you have to be pretty much in and out. Got it?” Eijirou hummed, nodding along. “Good. Basically, the way this is going to work is that you’re going to look human, hopefully enough to fit in among them. Your tail will still be a tail, it’ll just be veiled, and will look and feel like legs. It might take some getting used to, but you’re going to need to walk.” The redhead was nodding, his face serious and concentrated as he listened to every word the pink girl threw at him, absorbing every single piece of information he could. “Now, remember, only a couple minutes. 20, at most. So please, please be in and out, no dawdling. Remember what he needs?”

“2 bowls of different sizes, and cloth.” Mina nodded, swimming towards him in the water slightly, rubbing her hands up and down Eijirou’s arms, the rough, red scales scattered across his body catching against the tips of Mina’s fingers. She continued her motions across his body, humming softly as she did, a tune the two boys were familiar with, having fallen asleep to the song many times, the group of them all huddled together in a familiar cave after feasting only hours prior. That was a happy memory the redhead didn’t realise he needed. 

The longer she felt over his body, the further through the song she got, the more Kirishima could feel a literal change running over his body, tickling as it rushed over each individual part of him. His skin felt prickly, like a thousand needles were only just pressing against the skin there, and his tail physically burned. But when he looked down, he didn’t have a tail. He had legs, feet, with toes on the end that he could wiggle back and forth like Bakugou’s. His scales were gone, replaced with smooth, creamy skin and freckles scattered lightly across them, similar to how his face must look. He still had his tail, could feel his tail when he moved, it just looked like he had legs. 

“Yo, dude, you do not suit dark hair.” Kaminari said, snickering behind his webbed hand, before quickly ducking to avoid the hand Kirishima threw out to smack him upside the head. His scale-less, unwebbed hand…

That was odd. 

“So mean, Denki~.” he whined, before Mina grabbed the sides of Kirishima’s face, turning his head to meet Mina’s bright eyes, a small fire burning behind them. 

“Ok, Ei, you’ve got 20 minutes, tops. Get up there, and complete this mission.” Her voice held no room for argument, not that Kirishima had much to argue anyway. Instead, he lifted his open hand to his forehead in a salute. He wouldn’t let them down!

“Aye aye, cap!”